1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus capable of printing while saving on a color material used amount.
2. Description of the Related Art
For an image recording apparatus (printer) which outputs image information by connecting to a host computer, and a copying machine (copier) which is used as a stand alone machine, there have been various discussions for color material saving methods to reduce a print product unit cost (running cost) per sheet by saving on the used amount of ink and toner, which serve as the color material for recording on a paper sheet.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-132006 discusses a method which has multiple toner saving modes for different types of images, such as texts, graphics, and photographs, constituting print data. In this method, effective print savings can be realized by automatically selecting the mode based on the type of the print data. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-132006 also discusses a method in which a specific mark in an image, such as “internal use only” and “copying not permitted” is determined, and image quality is compulsorily reduced to perform printing when such a specific mark is present. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-132006 discusses a method in which processing is switched to a toner saving mode based on a remaining amount of toner.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-167755 discusses a method which classifies areas in a bitmap image into black text portions (objects) and other areas (objects), and associates and stores identification information indicating a classification attribute with the position of each object. Then, based on the identification information indicating a classification attribute for each object position, a weighting is applied on the toner consumption amount when the bitmap image is printed.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-227444 discusses a printing apparatus which includes a unit for displaying a toner consumption amount so that a user can quantitatively understand the toner consumption amount and the printing costs, and which performs printing in an image quality mode based on a selection instruction made by the user.
However, the above described conventional techniques have the following drawbacks.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-132006, when data is printed, a good printing result can be obtained by selecting an optimum toner saving mode based on attributes of an image which forms the print data. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-167755, even better toner saving can be expected, because switching of a lookup table (LUT) is performed locally by identifying the object attributes. However, regarding setting of a color material used amount of each object, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2000-132006 and 2004-167755 merely have a fixed setting table is stored in advance in the image processing apparatus. Neither of these documents discusses a configuration which reflects user's preferences or printing intentions for each output print product.
In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-227444, a setting which reflects user's printing intentions from the perspective of printing costs is possible. In this method, the user sets an upper limit for printing costs, so that printing can be performed at the highest image quality under this upper limit. However, even in this method, when trying to print a document including a mixture of natural images and characters, a saving ratio in the natural image areas and in the character area cannot be freely set. Further, a saving ratio weighting cannot be applied based not only on the importance of portions between different objects, but also within the same object. More specifically, when there are multiple natural images present, it is not possible to set just one of those images to a saving mode, and not possible to set portions other than the necessary paragraphs in the character areas to a saving mode.
With the current spread of the Internet, increase in opportunities for web page screen printing will continue to rise. In web page screen printing, there are many cases in which areas that a user finds necessary are intermingled with unnecessary areas. Use of a large amount of color material for unnecessary areas contrary to the user's intentions leads to increase running costs and user dissatisfaction.
More specifically, methods for resolving the following conventional drawbacks, which are based on the perspective of ease of use for the user, do not exist.
Although a user wishes to incur printing costs only for necessary information and necessary areas in a print product, it is unclear what printing costs are incurred for each piece of information and each area.
Although the user wishes to incur costs only for the necessary information and the necessary areas in the print product, the weighting of the color material saving amount cannot be freely set within a page or within a job.
Although setting of photograph priority and character priority can be realized even in the conventional art, the printing costs cannot be incurred so as to reflect merits of each photograph when there are a plurality of photographs present, or merits of each paragraph in a text area.
The user cannot estimate a print image quality of an output product when printing is set to color material saving mode.
The user cannot set to optimum printing in advance because it is impossible to comprehend a relationship between a finished image quality and printing costs.